Deaf since she was five years old, Grania has learned that watching is not always enough to survive in the world of the hearing. Sent to the Ontario School for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario, Grania must learn to live away from her loving family. When Grania falls in love with Jim, a young hearing man from the East Coast, her life seems complete, but the First World War soon tears them apart and sweeps him into the worst of experiences?trench warfare.

Deafening is a deeply poignant love story set against the horrors of the First World War. At the same time, Itani’s depiction of a world where sound exists only in the margins is a singular feat in literary fiction, a place difficult to leave and even harder to forget.

Besides her two previous books of poetry (No Other Lodgings, Fiddlehead, 1978 and Rentee Bay, Quarry, 1983), Frances Itani has published a children's book and co-authored a book of short stories. More recently, Frances Itani, a Member of the Order of Canada, had a spectacular international debut with her first novel, Deafening, which received a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Canada and Caribbean Region) and was shortlisted for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; it was a #1 bestseller in Canada. Her second novel, Remembering The Bones, was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Itani’s short story collection, Poached Egg On Toast, won the 2005 Ottawa Book Award and the 2005 CAA Jubilee Award for Short Stories. Itani lives in Ottawa.

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